Special Hurricane Helene Coverage on DIRECTV Satellite

[KyL416]

For satellite customers 361-1 Severe Weather Mix and 361-2 Severe Weather Channel will be going live with coverage of Hurricane Helene

DIRECTV will add the Severe Weather Channel for all DIRECTV satellite customers [Ch. 361-2] and U-verse homes [Ch. 1227(HD)/227(SD)] and Severe Weather Mix to the same DIRECTV customers across multiple channels, including 361-1 (weather adjacent), 71-1, 200-1, and 307-2 (news mix adjacent) before it does. The Severe Weather Channel and Severe Weather Mix will remain active until emergency weather conditions subside.
...
The Severe Weather Channel rotates live local news coverage from broadcast stations in the hurricane’s path, and DIRECTV is already collaborating with stations in Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL; Tallahassee, FL- Thomas, GA; Atlanta, GA; and Nashville, TN; to utilize their up-to-the-minute live coverage.
...
Major station groups, led by Atlanta-based Cox Media Group, Fox Television Stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and TEGNA, have already agreed to provide local coverage to this cooperative effort.

It should go live later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on when the participating stations start their non-stop local coverage.

 

[Jimbo]

363 is covering it at the moment.

 

[KyL416]

So are 361 and 362. But they have to wait for the participating local stations to start their non-stop coverage to activate the Severe Weather Channel, as odds are most of them will be showing their regular primetime network programming tonight.

 

[Don in CT]

Great until the rain fade wipes out the signal.

 

[Jimbo]

Great until the rain fade wipes out the signal.

Rain fade wiping out who's signal ?
IF a station happens to lose thier signal, they would move to the next city.

 

[Don in CT]

Rain fade wiping out who's signal ?
IF a station happens to lose thier signal, they would move to the next city.

What does that have to do with someone watching DTV and their signal goes out. This will be a cat 4 at landfall. Good luck keeping a line of site with the bird.

 

[Jimbo]

What does that have to do with someone watching DTV and their signal goes out. This will be a cat 4 at landfall. Good luck keeping a line of site with the bird.

Oh, I was thinking you were saying You were losing signal ... sorry.

 

[KyL416]

The Severe Weather Channel's main target isn't in market viewers hunkering down at home, it's mainly to give national viewers a look into how it's being covered locally, and also provide a service for evacuation shelters in out of market areas like Mobile, Jacksonville and Orlando. DIRECTV has been doing this in some form for most major land falling hurricanes since Katrina.

Rain fade will be the least of their worries anyway. Most local stations will be simulcasted on radio during the brunt of the storm so people who lose power and/or cell service can still be informed. Stations also heavily promote the live streams on their apps, even though video streaming is the last thing people should be doing on their phones if they don't know when they'll be able to fully charge it again.

 

[steve615]

For satellite customers 361-1 Severe Weather Mix and 361-2 Severe Weather Channel will be going live with coverage of Hurricane Helene



It should go live later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on when the participating stations start their non-stop local coverage.

Thanks very much for that update. Over the years gone by, the Severe Weather Mix and Severe Weather Channel on satellite channels 361-1 and 361-2 were pretty much a regular thing, from start to finish of the hurricane seasons. I always try to tune into those channels for coverage, as I have family and friends living in several of the coastal areas and regions. Here's hoping DIRECTV will continue to provide these two satellite channels well into the future.

 

[KyL416]

I just did a check of the Tampa stations, they all have regular network programming right now with the occasional ticker. However in Fort Myers WBBH bumped NBC to a subchannel for non-stop coverage.

It's also going to have to be more than just those 4 owners, Sinclair's Tallahassee stations don't have local newscasts, only Gray (CBS) and Scripps (ABC) produce local news for that market.

 

[RaiderPower]

This is, unfortunately, one of the few remaining, but still fairly significant differences between the satellite side and the streaming side (not to be confused with DIRECTV via Internet), namely that there are no "catastrophe-mix" subchannels, or any others, added to the DIRECTV STREAM side.

The above notwithstanding, DIRECTV STREAM subscribers do have all the weather channels available (including a linear, rather than a FAST Fox Weather channel) and have no worries whatsoever with regard to rain-fade outages, so there may yet be some balance in the universe, if not the service itself.

 

[KyL416]

DIRECTV via Internet

The severe weather channels are satellite only, so DIRECTV via Internet users don't have access to them either.

(including a linear, rather than a FAST Fox Weather channel)

363 FOX Weather on the Genies uses the exact same stream that Internet/Stream users have.

 

[cpalmer2k]

It would be nice if DirecTV's streaming services had a contingency for things like this. In this situation they've known for days the storm was coming, so it theoretically was possible to get a streaming placeholder up and running. Or, they could have a couple of placeholder "Special Event" streaming channels available at all times to account for things like this.

 

[RaiderPower]

363 FOX Weather on the Genies uses the exact same stream that Internet/Stream users have.

Interesting as it was my understanding that the satellite side used a FAST feed that was not restartable (which I cannot confirm since I no longer have satellite), whereas the stream side uses a "regular" feed that can be restarted, which I can confirm.

 

[KyL416]

That's not what FAST means. FAST = Free ad-supported streaming TV, in most cases those types of streams just have a slate during commercial breaks for targetted dynamic ad insertion. It has nothing to do with the ability to restart a stream, that's determined by a flag in the app's API.

Genie customers are using the exact same URL that stream/internet customers access, sourced by the C-Band feed.

 

[RaiderPower]

That's not what FAST means. FAST = Free ad-supported streaming TV, in most cases those types of streams just have a slate during commercial breaks for targetted dynamic ad insertion. It has nothing to do with the ability to restart a stream, that's determined by a flag in the app's API.

Genie customers are using the exact same URL that stream/internet customers access, sourced by the C-Band feed.

Yes, I am aware of what the acronym stands for, I was merely using it as a point of reference as none of the FAST channels that have been added to the streaming side in the 4000+ range are restartable, whereas Fox Weather Channel is and always has been for the 2+ years it has been available.

The question remains, is channel 363 restartable on the satellite and/or via Internet side?

 

[b4pjoe]

For satellite customers 361-1 Severe Weather Mix and 361-2 Severe Weather Channel will be going live with coverage of Hurricane Helene

It should go live later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on when the participating stations start their non-stop local coverage.

When I try to go to either of those channels I get a "Channel Not Available" message.

 

[KyL416]

It's not live yet, it will go live in a few hours

 

[KyL416]

The channels are now live. Currently showing WTSP Tampa.

 

[KyL416]

It's also going to have to be more than just those 4 owners, Sinclair's Tallahassee stations don't have local newscasts, only Gray (CBS) and Scripps (ABC) produce local news for that market.

They updated the announcement. Nexstar and Gray are now included.

This will potentially let them add Gainesville and Albany GA to the rotation too, as the Sinclair stations in those DMAs also don't have any local news. Right now Gainesville's ABC (Gray) is showing General Hospital with a tiny radar map in the corner. Some of the Fort Myers stations are also showing news, but none of their owners are on the list.